How We Change
by Apple Pornography
Summary: Johnny said he was going on a vacation... Todd's been waiting. Now that Todd's mental state is slowly being corrupted, Johnny decides to return. Things sure are different, though.... Not yaoi. Things get really weird when we explore our minds.
1. Chapter 1

Night had fallen on the city once more. Well, it was really a matter of what time the clocks read by now, night was almost perpetual by now. No one knew why, but the time read that it was 'round evening or so. What was left of the city's population was settling down, cars slowly reducing in the streets to a trickle, lights in the homes' and apartments' windows flicking on.

This city wasn't average in any way. A rather forbidding darkness surrounded the area, so much so in the minds of the citizens, that it even took a physical form. No one knew how or why the dark had accumulated, but it held more than a blackness about the sky. There was a tint of a vicious red color, as if wishing to drive the entire city into mad violence. The people tried their best to ignore it, to act normal, as if there was nothing wrong... The seams were beginning to strain, though, and everyone knew their pretend ignorance was going to rupture soon.

*CRACK*

Nearly jumping out of his skin, a young man spun around in his decrepid home, searching desperately for the cause of the noise. He soon located it, however: It was... his foot. He had stepped on a piece of glass. How typical of him, to be so startled by his own actions. Todd moved along in the home, looking about the place. It had fallen to hell, the remains of it at least. His neighbor's base, the crazy man he so feared and honored for so long, was falling apart. Looking down at a single meat hook on the ground, Todd suddenly felt an unexplainable rage falling over him. _I'm going on a vacation for a while..._ "FOR A WHILE?!" came the scream, Todd throwing a kick at the hook and sending it ricocheting against the wall."IT'S BEEN 5 FUCKING YEARS, YOU FUCKING LIAR!" Todd fumed over the disgusting mess of a living room, the rage boiling over and soon extinguishing. Todd soon only felt sadness. "Fucking liar." Giving the place one final look, he left the house and walked a few feet down the sidewalk.

No one came by this street any longer, not even the blind hobos. This area seemed to be the epicenter of all the darkness, something that could almost be felt. Todd reached his home, opening the door. It came off this time, causing the boy to scream, then snarl and throw it out into the yard. This house, Todd decided, was still better off than his neighbor's. He had tried, time and time again, to clean that crumbling structure, to perhaps make it at least liveable, but try as he might, it refused to allow it. He had eventually just settled on taking advantage of his home. It was old and grimy, but neat. Aside from the well-managed furniture, though, there were hundreds upon hundreds of drawings on the walls, floors, sometimes ceilings if he could manage it. Much like an urban Sistine Chapel, it was really a work of art. Todd couldn't help notice something, though... It was changing. Not deteriorating, but actually mutating. Todd hadn't an idea why this was happening, but he chose to ignore it for now.

Picking up a marker, he began to add some detail to the drawing he was working on before he had stepped out. He had found a CD player with a plethora of odd CDs in Johnny's house, and was surprised the house had allowed him to pick it up... A particularly loud marker squeak broke the silence. _Allowed me to... What the hell am I thinking?! It's a fucking house, not some organism! _he thought to himself, scratching out the error he made. Sighing, he soon went around the other parts of the house to redo his drawings were beginning to slowly err.

Sleeping in his bed that night, Todd had the usual stream of nightmares. He had grown quite used to them by now, but things were starting to get more difficult. It was as if his dreams were getting more intelligent. They were honing in on more specific fears, speaking to him, beginning to know him. Todd was thrashing about his bed covers, dealing with a particularly smart demonic ghost, when suddenly there was a noise in the dark. Eyes snapping open, Todd looked around in the dark. A hand went over to one of the saws he had taken from Johnny's home. He almost sighed. It was gone, the house had taken it back. He was too wary to even remind himself how ridiculous the thought was. Getting up, he crept quietly throughout the house, locating the sound into the bathroom. Why was this so familiar? Turning on the light, Todd screamed at what was in there.

"Oh, hello. Can you help me find some Bactine?"


	2. Chapter 2

Todd stared with his mouth agape. "...Johnny??"

Straightening up, there he was. Neither smiling nor frowning, Johnny looked like he hadn't aged a day. It was odd how the concept of time had seemed to evade him, even more so how emotionless he looked now. "Hey Squee," he said simply, standing a bit awkwardly, like a guest that wasn't invited. Oh wait.

Todd was conflicted between running and hugging the only older brother influence he had ever had, and running out of the house screaming. He compensated by giving a terrified screech and running blindly at Johnny, squeezing the other tightly in a terrified hug. Johnny looked down at Todd, a mildly confused expression on his face. After giving the other a frightened hug, Todd let go and quickly backed away towards the bathroom door. "Are you here to kill me?" he asked, that same terrified little boy shining through his older body. Johnny smiled softly, though it was merely a gesture of habit rather than having any meaning to it. "No, not right now. I'm too hungry and this bleeding wound is really bothering me."

A few minutes later, the two were downstairs in the kitchen. Johnny had his arm bandaged up, and Todd was making something on the stove. "Why'd you just now come back?" he asked, looking over at Johnny with a cocked eyebrow.

Looking up from his glass of rather brown water, Johnny thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, honestly. I believe because the house sort of..." he made an odd thinking face, getting the words together, "called me back. Not because I'm still its slave, but... it sort of asked me to." He looked over at Todd. "Y'know?"

Todd was quick to nod, though he had suddenly remembered how insane his neighbor was. "Where were you this whole time?" he asked, looking down at the refried beans. Tacos seemed like a good choice for an early morning meal.

"I have to say... Earth," Johnny said, nodding. "Not really sure, though, I think some aliens might have picked me up at one point. There was... a tube involved." He shuddered, the experience apparently having been unpleasant. He then looked down at his spindly hands, saying, "The city feels different. It feels like the people have finally realised that this world is decaying. Society's becoming aware of its own accumulating filth." He looked up at Todd. "Do you feel it too?"

Quick to deny it, Todd shook his head. "I think it's just in everyone's head," he said, shrugging passively. In his head, however, he knew Johnny was right. Regardless to Todd's answer, though, Johnny said, "Yes, I'm sure of it. Looks like I might have been wrong about man never learning..."

Todd got out the taco shells, not having to scale the counter anymore, unlike his former child self. Johnny seemed to notice the same, saying, "You've grown a lot since I've seen you last. You're probably a lot smarter too, despite still being in school, I assume?" Todd shrugged with a smile, saying, "Well I don't know about that..." Johnny got up, coming over to Todd and looming over him in that same horrifying way Todd remembered. "You'd better have hot sauce, I'd KILL for some right now." In a surge of panic, Todd said, "We got some! Don't get upset, we have some..." Johnny had rummaged through the cupboard above Todd, glaring into it expectantly. "Ahh, so you do," he said, pulling out said item. Todd breathed again.

A few minutes later, the two were at the table eating, Todd having only a little bit of what he prepared, more tired than hungry, but not dare considering sleep now that Johnny was back. Said man looked up at Todd again, brows quirked in a questioning gaze. "I'm assuming you're on your own now? I saw neither of your parents..." Todd nodded, saying, "They just sort of left me one day. I don't really care, I had a feeling it would happen sometime." He looked down at his meal, realising he wasn't hungry anymore. Johnny's eyes narrowed. "Humans like to think they're different from animals... They're not. Once the young's old enough to care for itself, they feel no need to raise it any further. They're exactly like animals, your parents. Like... wombats." He picked at his wound wrappings idly, Todd mulling that over. "Humans are different, though..." Johnny glared. "B-but not that much so," Todd added quickly.

The house suddenly made an odd shifting, groaning sound. Todd stopped and listened, a bit frightened at first. It sounded as though wind wind was moving the frame slightly, though the window showed no trees moving. The sound had stopped as abruptly as it started, too. Todd hoped it was a small earthquake, even though he knew the floor hadn't shifted any. Johnny, however, glared at the ceiling. "I know that sound..." he mumbled, shooting a slightly accusing look at Todd. "Your drawings move around, you know," he said, "Especially the ones around where you sleep." Todd stared at Johnny, fear slowly coursing into him. "...What?"

"I was watching you sleep a few hours ago," Johnny said, as though that was as normal as taking a piss, "and I realised that the walls around your head were sort of shifting. Well, not the walls, moreso the drawings you've made. You draw a lot." The corner of his mouth twitched up. "Reminds me of when I was younger. Keep doing that." Todd held up his hands, though, interrupting, "Whoa whoa whoa, you're telling me drawings on the walls are moving? You're not hallucinating, are you? Have you started drugs or something?"

_WHACK._

Johnny slammed his fist down on the table. "YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?! ME, WHO HAS TASTED THE SHIT-STEW OF THIS WORLD AND ASKED FOR SECONDS?!" He stood abruptly, giving Todd a glare that the boy had never seen, a look that only Johnny's prey had ever seen. Todd screamed and backed into the corner, shouting, "No! No, okay, I believe you!" He held his arms up, squeezing his eyes shut and hoping the other wouldn't attack him.

Johnny's glare softened, the man looking down at Todd. How that cowering, pathetic pose made him want to spiral into a frenzy, how he wanted to rip that boy apart... But he calmed himself, saying, "Get up. I want to see the rest of the house. You can't make the same mistake I did with my home, this place might get a lot worse a lot more quickly." 


	3. Chapter 3

It was hard following Johnny's gangly frame as the man flew about the house, running here and there and running his hands along the walls, sometimes pressing his ear up against them. He was listening for something, though for what, Todd had no boy followed Johnny helplessly, finally asking him, "Okay, what are you listening for? Rats?" Johnny spun around and shouted, "MUCH worse! Worse, even, than narwhals..." He procured a knife from inside his trench coat (it was rather cold in the dark city), then without warning, began to slash and gouge into the wall. "I KNOW YOU'RE HIDING, YOU FILTHY FUCKING BLISTERING ROT!!"

Todd let out a screech and flung himself at Johnny, pulling him from the wall. "No, Nny, NO!" he cried, eventually holding the other back. "You're ruining all my drawings!" Despite that, however, he looked at the wall and his stomach lurched. Something had moved inside it, but it was gone as soon as it had been seen. He hoped he was right, it was a rat... Johnny's insane, he can't be taken seriously!

Meanwhile, Johnny was rambling, still glaring at the wall. "...Must've infected you too, Señor Diablo told me all about my little infection..." He spun around to look Todd over. "YOU. BATHROOM."

Todd was quietly wondering, amongst his anguished screams, why this all had to happen to him, of all people. Of course, it was hard to scream all that clearly when he was being slightly strangled by the collar of his shirt that Johnny was dragging him by. Soon, they reached the bathroom, Johnny throwing Todd in the tub and getting out a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "THIS'LL HELP," he screeched, a horrid smile stretched across his face. Todd didn't have time to ask as a deathly cold and intensely pungent liquid splashed on him. "MY EYES," Todd screamed, rubbing them as the alcohol burned them, though everything else was fine...

Johnny paid absolutely no mind to Todd's suffering, looking off to the bathroom walls. "Dammit, I guess not. It's infected you too much! Maybe human urine will help."

"WHAT'S infected me?!" Todd finally shouted, sitting up from the tub with red watering eyes. Johnny seemed to have just remembered the boy was there, for he cocked a brow before saying, "Oh. Well... It's some odd type of mental manifestation that eventually takes form of a physical being. It feeds off of us, it grows off of our stress, happiness, hate... Creepy little monsterous things to huge deadly beasts. I had one in my house, destroyed the whole thing... I think. They're Satan's little shits on the planet, in short."

At that time, Todd had climbed out of the bath tub. "That's crazy, though!" he cried to the other, not caring what Johnny's reaction was this was, predictably, angry. "So be it! Don't believe me, then! When the monster comes for you, feeds off your life like some parasitic sponge, don't say I didn't warn you!" At that point, he was perched on top of the counter.

Todd frowned. "Johnny, STOP IT! There's nothing--"

_CRACK. _Something that sounded like drywall was splitting, and Johnny promptly darted out of the bathroom toward the sound. Leaving him little choice, Todd wiped his eyes with a towel and ran after Johnny.


	4. Chapter 4

The sound soon led Johnny to Todd's bedroom, or rather the master bedroom; Todd had remade it into his own. At first, nothing seemed amiss or displaced, until Johnny found huge thin cracks among the various drawn lines. Todd looked upon the marker art. The lines had deformed and mutated again, more aggressively than before. Todd was beginning to panic by this point, muttering, "Johnny... Get away from the wall." Bad things were gonna happen, he just knew it.

Well, wasn't Todd just the fucking prophet boy. Johnny was feeling along the walls, listening. "It's behind here," he muttered, getting out a machete he picked up from the kitchen and spinning it by the blade to catch the handle, all the while hitching it up to swing it at the wall--

"JOHNNYYY!!!" Todd screamed, the wall splitting open in a thousand fragments and several huge chunks. Ropy tentacles, claws, eyes, mouths, and various body parts of all kinds came spilling out, pouring and sticking and writhing onto the ground, the thing making horrific god-awful demonic screeches and snarls. The thing wrapped around Johnny, the last thing seen from the man being him curling up and closing his eyes, a nasty expression of hate on his face as he tucked his weapon close. Todd looked up at the thing that had emerged, gasping as it soon arranged itself into a semi-recognisable form.

_"Hhhellooo, Sssqueeeee..."_ The thing's main-most mouth said, the last of the tentacles and claws slapping and coiling to its form.

It was a giant thing, four short limbs, a head with odd ear things... stitches across its body and face... Two main eyes that glared blankly, a wide evil-looking mouth curling into a menacing smile. It had two short, sharp buck-teeth. Todd muttered, "Oh, God... Shmee..."

The demonic monster bear let out a laugh, multiple sounds and voices crammed into the thing and let loose in one terrifying sound. _"Right you arrre, my little trauma ssspout. Glad to knnnow you ssstill rememberrr meee..." _It looked down at its stomach. _"The crrrazy neighbor man's putting up quite a fight in therrre... I cannn feel him strrruggling in me, writhing... Like I in you for ssso many yearrrsss..."_

Todd glared at his former teddy bear, terror seeping into his body like nothing he's ever felt before. He felt like the time his dad told him to stick a fork in the electric socket, only this time he wasn't on fire. "Shmee! Give m-me Nny back RIGHT NOW!" At that, the bear-monster laughed. _"I take no orders from you anymore, Todd! You shhhould have listened to me all those yearsss, I would have made you ssstronger, made you much betterrr off! Nowww look at you, all alone! No parrrents! No frrriends! Stillll you insssisted on playing the good guy, so I knewww I had to ssseparate from the body! It's all your fault, you know."_

The monster reached for Todd, grabbing the boy up and leaning in. _"Nowww... You and I willll be one, once morrre!"_ It opened its mouth, about to cram Todd in. Todd was screaming by now, struggling as he looked down at the shifting, mutating pit of the monster's mouth... until he saw the knife suddenly stick out of the throat.

_"Oh shhhit," _muttered Shmee, before a small bomb went off inside it and it got blown to gorey disgusting bits. Todd too was blown back, the boy hitting his head against the wall hard enough to knock him unconscious. He fell to the ground, not knowing anything more.

"...ee... Squee... Squee!" The sounds came slowly to Todd, the boy shifting slightly before opening his eyes and squinting. It was too bright... Slowly, his memory came back into recollection. "...Nny?" he muttered, a shock of adrenalin upon remembering the monster waking him up more effectively. "What happened to it? How'd you escape? Wait... Was I dreaming?" Oh god he hoped so.

Johnny looked down at Todd, the evidence of a battle obvious from his injuries and tattered clothes. He was bleeding from the scalp, a few locks of hair and bits of scalp missing. "I WOULD lie to you and tell you it was a dream, but I went through quite an effort to get out of that fucking thing and save you, so I wanted some credit for my actions."

Todd sat up and looked around. They were on the roof. It was as much of daytime as the city would get, though it was still bright to Todd's eyes. He was about to ask how Johnny was able to carry him onto the roof, but the most important questions came first. "So does that mean you killed it?" he asked, hopeful about that. After all, Johnny WAS a killer. He received a hard look, though, Johnny shaking his head. "It's part of you, as much as you hate to admit it. It will probably reform... Or you can destroy it yourself. I don't know how to do that, though I could kill you and have you ask Satan. You might not come back though."

Todd sighed, then looked at Johnny. "Where are we gonna stay?" he asked, looking down at Johnny's old home. Johnny followed Todd's gaze, saying with a dark look, "I'm not going back there. You got an attic? Somewhere you didn't draw all over. That thing told me that was how it traveled, it used the pathways from the lines you drew." Todd thought to himself, mostly about how ludicrous all this sounded... Then again, from what he had witnessed tonight, Johnny could tell Todd that he farted rainbows and he'd believe him. "Yeah... My attic's clean." He sighed once more. "I wondered where Shmee went all these years."


End file.
